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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Broadening Broadband - A Challenge in Rural Areas

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Thursday, June 13, 2013   

WHITESBURG, Ky. - A federal report has found that beyond the obvious fact that broadband is less available in rural areas, there is also "considerable variation in availability" in both rural and urban communities. Bottom line: There is "not a simple rural/urban divide." A rural community's proximity to a metro area "is often more closely associated with higher broadband speeds than is population density alone," according to the report.

Dee Davis, president, Center for Rural Strategies, based in Whitesburg, said rural areas have been hurt by the nation's focus on a market-driven structure.

"The market's always going to go to the well-heeled communities," he observed. "It's going to go to the densest population."

The U.S. Department of Commerce report found that overall broadband availability for rural residents is one-third less than for those who live in cities and their suburbs.

Folks in rural communities end up paying more for a lower level of service, Davis said.

"That also means that they don't get the same chance to participate in the economy," he pointed out. "They don't get to bring their goods and services to market in the same way. They don't always get to participate."

The lack of broadband penetration in rural areas also puts their region's education and health care systems at a disadvantage, Davis warned.

The full report is available at www.ntia.doc.gov.




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